It's not so much about having the talent and ability to play as a freshman at Alabama. It's about the mental wherewithal and backbone to deal with a menacing, maniacal man explaining, as only he can, that you're out of @#&$* position!

Or in this case, coach Nick Saban.

"In order to be a great player," Alabama linebacker C.J. Mosley said, "you've got to be able to take great coaching."

This is the way it works at Alabama. Saban recruits the best high school players in the country, promises them nothing, pushes (see: coaches) them to the breaking point, and then watches big play after big play unfold on the field week after week.

It began six years ago when, after taking the Alabama job, Saban's first recruiting trip was to see the nation's best high school linebacker. He never told Rolando McClain he would play from Day 1; just like he never told Julio Jones or Trent Richardson or Dont'a Hightower or any of the wave after wave of high school players that step on the field in Tuscaloosa with zero experience.

Mosley gave up two big plays on wheel routes as a freshman two years ago — once against Duke and once against Florida — and felt the wrath of Saban. On the sideline or in front of the team, Mosley is asked.

"Both," he said.

And now we finally begin to understand the pressure and expectation of playing for Saban straight out of high school. Look, it's not for everyone; Saban, according to players, makes that very clear on recruiting trips.

He doesn't make promises of playing time, and doesn't talk about his history of playing freshmen. He just says you'll be given an opportunity — it's up to you what you do with it.

"He never lied to me; that's the one thing I've always respected about coach Saban," Cooper said. "Some coaches will look at you and tell you that we're going to play you here or here on the first day of practice. He looks at you and says you've got to earn it. To me, as a player, that's all you can ask for. Because in the end, it's up to you."

If Saban's success with freshmen weren't remarkable enough, consider this: They keep coming. In other words, the Tide continues to land top three (and most of the time, No. 1) recruiting classes over and over.

So just as one star-filled freshmen class arrives, another strolls into town a year later and stacks and packs the depth chart like I-459 in Tuscaloosa on fall Saturdays. They're almost at the point now that if you don't make your move as a true freshman at Alabama, you've fallen behind.

Doesn't matter the position or the personnel in front of you. Cooper wasn't Alabama's highest-rated wideout from last year's recruiting class, but Chris Black got dinged up in camp and Cooper emerged and the next thing you know, Cooper is being compared to Jones.

Here's another thing: It doesn't matter when you can play, you'll play. Black had been scheduled to redshirt for months, but when injuries thinned the receiving corps, Saban looked to Black and Black agreed to play — and potentially burn a season — if he is needed in Monday's BCS National Championship Game.

It's not like Saban hasn't done it before. More than a decade ago at LSU, Tigers cornerback Randall Gay was injured during the SEC Championship Game and Saban took a redshirt off Travis Daniels. All Daniels did was break up two passes — including a potential touchdown in the end zone — as a freshman who had never before stepped on the field.

"If you can play for us, you're going to play — doesn't matter when or where," Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart said. "Our job is to get these kids ready to play. Age and timing doesn't mean a thing."

There is, however, one position that seemingly does matter: quarterback. Saban has yet to start a freshman quarterback at Alabama — although it nearly happened in 2009.

It was then that Saban, in the middle of his first national championship run with the Tide, moved then-freshman AJ McCarron from No. 3 on the depth chart (and a lock for a redshirt) to top backup for starter Greg McElroy — in October. Saban said at he had no issue playing McCarron should something happen to McElroy.

It never did, but that defining move further underscored the Saban philosophy with freshmen: You play when you're ready.

"I really didn't have time to be nervous," McCarron says now. "I knew I was ready to play because our coaches had me ready to play."